Omar Abdullah drives National Conference-Congress alliance to power in J&K

Srinagar/Jammu, Oct 9: The National Conference-Congress alliance secured a majority in the historic Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, held for the first time after the revocation of Article 370, by bagging 49 of the 90 seats in the UT. The results were declared on Tuesday.

The NC, which won 42 seats in the UT, swept the Kashmir region, while the BJP performed well in the Jammu region, its stronghold, claiming 29 seats. The Assembly elections were held in J&K after 10 years and were spread over three phases.

The Congress did not perform well and won just six seats in the UT, including only one in the Jammu region.

In the Kashmir valley, it was a significant victory for the NC, which emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly elections, winning 35 seats in Kashmir division and seven in Jammu. In South Kashmir, considered to be a bastion of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), the NC bagged 10 of the 16 seats.

The BJP, which was hoping to form the government with the support of smaller parties in the Valley and Independents, ended up holding its fort in the Jammu region and won 29 seats. It had won 25 seats in the 2014 poll. Six seats were added to the Jammu region after delimitation in 2022, taking the total number of seats to 43.

Since early morning, the NC-Congress alliance was leading in the trends. By afternoon, it was almost clear that the alliance had the numbers to form the next government in J&K. Among the top leaders who won in Kashmir were NC vice-president Omar Abdullah, Congress UT chief Tariq Karra, Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference Chief Sajad Lone, Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid's brother Sheikh Khursheed and CPM leader MY Tarigami, also a part of the NC-Congress alliance.

On the other hand, top politicians who lost the elections included Mehbooba Mufti's daughter Iltija Mufti, Apni Party's north Kashmir face Ghulam Hassan Mir, People's Conference leader and top Shia cleric Imran Raza Ansari, who lost the Pattan seat, former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Baig and top NC leader Nasir Aslam Wani.

In the Nowshera constituency in Rajouri district, the BJP suffered a jolt as its J&K chief Ravinder Raina lost. Congress working president Raman Bhalla also lost from RS Pura-Jammu South. Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Tara Chand lost from Chhamb, while Zulfikar Choudhary, who had shifted loyalty from the Apni Party to the BJP before the poll, also lost. Controversial Congress leader Choudhary Lal Singh, who had lost in the Lok Sabha poll this year, suffered another defeat from the Basohli seat.

BJP candidate Shagun Parihar, whose father and uncle were killed by militants in 2018, won from the Kishtwar seat. Devender Singh Rana and SS Slathia, who shifted from the NC to the BJP in 2021, won from the Nagrota and Samba constituencies, respectively. The results came as a shocker for the PDP, which won only three seats as compared to 28 in the 2014 elections.

Party chief Mehbooba Mufti, however, told reporters in Srinagar that she was happy that people of Kashmir gave the mandate to the NC-Congress alliance, which would help form a stable government.

This is the NC's best-ever performance since the 1996 elections, while for the PDP, it is the worst-ever performance.

The Apni Party also suffered a setback as its chief Altaf Bukhari lost his seat in Srinagar. The Ghulam Nabi Azad-led DPAP was not even able to clinch a single seat.